Chapter Four: [Don’t] Get Thee to a Nunnery

“Oh m’gawd!”

Luce didn’t have to turn to know who just screamed. She would know that incredibly nasal, rather effeminate, yet utterly charming voice anywhere. She spun around and waved at the speaker, a wide grin threatening to split her face.

“Yuya-chan!” she shouted, pushing her way through the wave of new arrivals at Narita.

Yukinojo Yamazaki – nicknamed Yuya – was Pleiades Project’s lead guitarist and one of Luce’s closest friends. Back when Luce was still the band’s publicist, they had tons of fun playing pranks on everyone, shopping in Harajuku, and pigging out on the magnificent tonkatsu over at Tonki in Meguro with the band’s rhythm guitarist Shura Hasegawa. Even after she left, they’d kept in touch and he was always the one who picked her up from the airport whenever she came to Japan for her summer vacations - and the one who helped her raise hell almost as soon as she got settled in.

“Gawd, you are just so too beautiful!” Yuya shrieked as he enveloped Luce in a rib-cracking hug that seemed at odds with his ethereally slender appearance. Playfully, he poked the tip of her nose. “And to think you wanted to enter a convent!”

Luce groaned and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “Don’t remind me!” she exclaimed as they made their way out of the airport. “So: did you drive over here in that rickety old jalopy of yours or did you finally ditch that wreck for a new car?”

Yuya laughed – a totally wicked cackle. “Still insulting Cress after all these years!” he declared, shaking his head. More soberly, he added that he finally sold his old car and bought a new one. “But I didn’t drive my new baby over here,” he said. “I came in Shura-kins’s Roadster!”

As if on cue, a crimson BMW Roadster pulled up and stopped in front of them. The driver’s-side window rolled down to reveal a cheerful young man with a ready smile and short hair dyed a reddish blond.

“Oi, Luce!” he greeted her. He jerked a thumb towards the trunk of the car. “Just chuck your stuff in the back and we can hightail to Tonki for some grub!”

“Hey, Shura!” Eagerly, Luce stowed her luggage into the trunk and practically flew into the car. She slammed the door loudly (the way everyone in Pleiades Project did) and shouted, “Let’s go!”

“Hasn’t changed much, huh?” Shura asked Yuya, grinning at the latter through the rear-view mirror.

“Nah,” Yuya drawled as he draped himself artfully over the backseat. “Same ol’ nutcase Luce.”

Luce stuck her tongue out at him. “And someone’s still as bitchy as he was when I left!” she snorted.

“One has a reputation to keep, darling,” Yuya declared loftily.

Everyone laughed at that. On the way to Meguro from the airport, the boys filled her in on what the band was currently doing. Shinichi was currently starring as a feudal warlord in a taiga drama on national television. Their bassist, ‘Zuma, was presently touring with another band; in his place was a slightly younger guy who did some major-league bass work. Ranmaru, their producer, had his hands full (as always) with making everyone toe the line and stick to schedules. Of course, this was particularly fruitless as far as Shinichi was concerned.

“Shinichi’s acting again?” Luce’s eyes twinkled mirthfully as she posed the question. “I thought he gave that up after Into the Silence bombed at the box office!”

“You should watch Genji no Monogatari,” Shura suggested. “He’s positively brilliant as Hikaru Genji!”

This prompted Luce to slide a glance at Yuya. The former raised an eyebrow while the latter was trying his darndest best to stifle his giggles.

“Um, I’m pretty sure he is, Shura,” Luce murmured with a faint smile.


***

“Hey, waiter; more cabbage and rice here, please!”

“Gods, how I’ve missed Tokyo!” Luce declared as she happily tucked into her tonkatsu lunch. Perfect pork cutlets – fillets and loin cuts – with endless helpings of rice, sesame-infused cabbage, and tea were a great way to start her week-long vacation. “I mean, really: we don’t get pork cutlets like these back in Manila.”

“I’m just happy we can eat rice right now!” Yuya exclaimed between bites.

“Is that Shinichi’s latest fad?”

“Yeah!” Shura grunted as a waiter plunked down a tray bearing bowls of cabbage and rice before him. “He wants to have as little body fat as possible, so he’s scrapped carbs off his diet – along with everyone else’s!”

Luce paused and raised both eyebrows at him. “Tell me if he still eats croissants.”

“He does!” Yuya snickered. “He says they don’t count because he works off the calories ASAP!”

“I don’t really mind,” Shura remarked sheepishly.

“Meh!” Yuya sneered. “Don’t you always go along with what Shinichi says?”

Shura frowned at that. “Well, we’ve been best friends since high school,” he began somewhat defensively. “We’ve always done things together.” He busied himself with demolishing the food in front of him. “It’s what friends do.”

Yuya and Luce looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

“Speaking of friends,” Yuya went on, leering a little at Luce. “Got anyone special back home?”

Luce threw him a dirty look. “Puh-leeze, Yuya!” she groaned. “After what Martin did, I haven’t been in the habit of looking for potential partners.” She speared the last slice of tonkatsu somewhat savagely with her chopsticks. “I meant what I said years ago about entering a convent,” she continued.

“Bah!” Yuya sneered. “I remember when that happened! You were so distraught…”


***

“Have you gone out of your mind, Lusia?” Yuya shrieked as he sat at the foot of Luce’s bed. Luce was busy pulling dresses out of her closet, yanking them off their hangers, and tossing them to the floor.

“I won’t need them where I’m going,” Luce declared as she tossed two Atelier BOZ frocks. “They frown on such clothes there.”

“Where are you going?”

“The Pink Sisters’ convent in Tagaytay. They’re a cloistered order, so I can effectively seclude myself from all this madness.”

Yuya’s expressive eyes went round at this. “You’re throwing your life away on account that some libidinous bastard broke your heart?” he asked archly.

Luce stopped what she was doing and snarled at him. “What I do with my life,” she grated, “is none of your business.”

“Darling, I happen to know for a fact that you aren’t exactly nun material.”

“That’s what my kid brother said when I told him,” Luce muttered as she went back to work. At the time, Luce’s younger brother was a seminarian in the sophomore year of his graduate course in Theology. “He says I’m entering the convent for all the wrong reasons.” She slammed her now empty closet hard. “What’s wrong with turning one’s back on the world and swearing off men forever?”

At this point, despite the grim look on Luce’s face, the tears were already streaming down her cheeks. Miserably, she plunked herself down beside Yuya and began, in earnest, to cry.

“It’s just too damned unfair!” she wailed as Yuya hugged her. “Where did I go wrong? Is it because I was never around? Or was it because I never put out?”

“Hush!” Yuya murmured as he patted her back. “Don’t say such things, Luce. Never blame yourself for something that obviously isn’t your fault.” He chucked up her chin and met her teary eyes with a kindly look. “I could have warned you ages ago, but you would have accused me of meddling.”

“Yeah,” Luce agreed, dabbing her eyes with the hem of one of her dresses. She eyed him curiously. “Do gay guys like you have it harder than us girls?”

“Believe me, darling, it’s much, much worse,” Yuya assured her. “There will be others, you know.”

Luce shook her head adamantly. “There won’t,” she spat emphatically. “Who would want a control freak like me? Most men want women who give in easily.”

“And just because of that you want to throw yourself into a nunnery?” Yuya shook his head. “Lusia, Lusia, Lusia! Such an intelligent girl as you has more options than that!”

“Yeah, so everyone tells me,” Luce sighed. She had a somewhat lost expression on her face, a distant look in her eyes. “I’m taking a break from PR and publicity for a while,” she told Yuya. “Maybe I’ll teach or something, or go into the diplomatic service like my dad and granddad.” She dimpled, albeit sadly. “Maybe try something new like make software or something.”

“Will you ever come back?” Yuya asked her gently.

Luce threw him a stricken look and shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I really, really don’t know.”


***

“Well!” a deep, familiar voice announced. “Look who still hasn’t entered the convent!”

After lunch, the guys took Luce back to Pleiades HQ, the posh office in Harajuku from which the band held court. Luce delightedly immersed herself in everything that was old and familiar to her. She discussed PR plans with Akiko, once her assistant and now her successor. Ranmaru Yoshida, the band’s producer and father-figure, welcomed her back with open arms, and gleefully chattered about the image for the upcoming album. She jammed a bit with the band and was more than a little impressed with Jules, the new bassist who was half-English and Oxford-educated.

It was now pushing eight in the evening. Ranmaru ordered out for supper and now poured glasses of a particularly fine Merlot for everyone. Almost as soon as he uncorked the bottle, they heard soft barks coming from the lobby and a familiar voice snapping orders left and right. The door to the conference room slammed open and Shinichi appeared, leaning in his usual cool fashion in the doorway.

“Howdy-do, chief!” Luce greeted him irreverently, raising her glass to him. Her dark eyes sparkled with fun. “How was filming?” She grinned rather evilly at him. “I caught an episode of Genji just now,” she told him. “I’m amazed at how much your acting’s improved. May I say that your new drama coach is probably a great lay?”

The room burst into laughter at that, and Shinichi threw his trademark smirk at his former publicist. Gamely, he clapped his hands as he entered the room.

“You honestly think any convent will accept you with that sort of mouth, you shameless little fiend?” he exclaimed as he dipped an exquisite bow and kissed her hand.

Luce laughed aloud and shrugged. “Hey, I might just get away with it!” she replied in a challenging manner.

Shinichi threw his head back and laughed. He regarded Luce most fondly. “Damn it, but we’ve missed you, Luce!” he said. He stooped down to pick up a tiny puffball of a Chihuahua yapping at his heels. The little beast barked and wagged his tail at Luce. “Have you met Koyuki?” he asked her. “Latest addition to the zoo I call home.”

“What a darling!” Luce exclaimed, gently patting the tiny dog.

“Jules’s Shiba Inu’s cuter,” Yuya muttered. “And Shura’s dog is just plain goddamned fugly!”

“Don’t be nasty, Yuya,” Luce chided him with a smile. “You’re just jealous because you’re not Shinichi’s pet anymore.”

“Oh, he was never the pet,” Ranmaru snickered. “That‘s Shura.”

“So, tell me how you’ve been, woman!” Shinichi said as he settled into an armchair, Koyuki flopping into his lap.

“There’s not much to tell,” Luce admitted. She told him about her life at IntelliSystems, how she felt challenged by her work and how interesting it was. She mentioned her brother’s ordination to the priesthood some months before and her younger sister’s graduation from high school. “It’s been a quiet life,” she said with a shrug. “Not what I used to have, but I don’t mind.”

“How’s your social life?” Shinichi asked her.

Luce laughed at that. “What social life?” she asked in return. “I get to work at seven in the morning, leave at six. I go straight home. I do my grocery shopping, browse the bookshops, and try new restaurants.” A look of deep pain marred her face. “I’ve been trying to steer clear of situations that might draw me into the same circles as Martin.”

“Still smarting, huh?” Shinichi remarked soberly. “But surely someone must be paying attention to you?”

Luce smiled rather forlornly. “There’s no one, chief,” she said. She added somewhat wryly, “Unless you count the pesky guy who tried to sell me some software a couple months ago. Damn, he was persistent!”

“How persistent?”

“I mean, he called me every day for two weeks straight!” Luce exclaimed. “Isn’t that a little too much just to get someone to buy a product?”

Shinichi and everyone else fell silent at that. He looked to the others and, judging from the looks on their faces, knew they had the same suspicions.

“Well…” he drawled slowly. “Who knows? He just might get lucky.”

Luce didn’t have to know, of course, that Shinichi meant that in more ways than one.